Can you eat Chinese food when pregnant?
Hannah Weiss
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Find out if it's safe to eat Chinese food during pregnancy, including spring rolls, chow mein and sweet and sour dishes. Plus precautions to take to keep you and your baby healthy.
The official advice on eating Chinese food in pregnancy
Great news! It's generally safe to eat Chinese food while you're pregnant. However there are some things you should be cautious about.
Whether you're making Chinese food at home or having a takeaway, it's important to only eat meat, fish and shellfish that has been properly cooked. This is because raw or uncooked meat, fish and shellfish can contain harmful bacteria that could give you food poisoning.
You're more vulnerable to food poisoning while you're pregnant, so if you're getting a takeaway, it's important to choose an outlet with good standards of hygiene. Look out for a Food Standards Agency certificate, which will usually be displayed in the shop window. A food hygiene rating of 4 or 5 means that the shop's standards were good or very good at the last inspection.
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It's also worth noting that Chinese food – especially from takeaways – can contain high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat, so it's not the best option, health-wise.
Getting too much sugar or saturated fat could make you gain too much weight during your pregnancy, which is bad for you and your baby. And too much salt can raise your blood pressure. So it's best to enjoy Chinese food in moderation while you're pregnant.
Salt and soy sauce
In 2018 Action on Salt surveyed 269 Chinese ready meals, side dishes and sauces from supermarket shelves and takeaway restaurants. Their research found that 97% of takeaway meals contained over 2g of salt and over half had more than 3g.
This is 50% of the 6g daily recommended limit set out by the NHS. Some supermarket ready meals and Chinese snacks, like Peking duck and prawn crackers, also contained high levels of salt. One takeaway had double the daily recommended salt limit!
Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure, putting your health at risk. It can also make pregnancy swelling worse.
This is why it's best to shop around for ready meals and products like soy sauce that contain reduced levels of salt. Save that Chinese takeaway for an occasional treat.
MSG
Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is a savoury flavour enhancer. MSG is commonly used in Chinese dishes, but it can also be found naturally in foods like tomatoes and mushrooms.
According to Healthline, despite anecdotal evidence of adverse reactions to MSG, there is no concrete research that suggests it's unsafe to eat during pregnancy. However it is possible to be allergic to MSG, so take care if there is a history of food allergies in your family.
Some foods flavoured with MSG, such as Chinese sauces or snacks, also contain high levels of salt. Always read the nutritional information to avoid exceeding the recommended daily intake of 6g.
Sweet and sour sauce
Some Chinese dishes, like sweet and sour stir-fries, contain lots of sugar to add flavour. It's important to eat sugar in moderation during pregnancy, because too much could cause you to gain too much pregnancy weight, which can increase the risk of certain pregnancy complications.
Research also suggests that consuming high levels of sugar during pregnancy could potentially have a negative impact on your baby’s brain development.
The NHS recommends that adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day – that's the equivalent of about seven sugar cubes. Free sugars include any sugar added to food or drinks, like cereal, sweets or ready meals. The natural sugars found in fruit juice and honey count towards this limit too.
The meat in sweet and sour dishes – like sweet and sour pork – is often deep-fried. This is safe to eat, providing the meat has been cooked through, with no trace of pink or blood.
Spring rolls
Spring rolls contain a variety of meat, prawns or vegetables fried in wonton wrappers. Deep-fried food is never the healthiest option, but it's perfectly fine to enjoy spring rolls as an occasional treat.
Vietnamese spring rolls can be a delicious healthy alternative, as these are served fresh in softened rice paper instead of being fried in oil.
Chow mein
Chow mein – or Chinese stir-fried noodle dishes – can be a relatively healthy option when cooked at home. You can add a variety of vegetables and fry them in a light oil. Just take care with how much soy sauce or sweet chilli sauce you add to the dish!
Delicious Chinese recipes
Love Chinese food? Why not try one of these great pregnancy-safe recipes? Just make sure any meat or fish is properly cooked.
The Day-by-Day Pregnancy Book: Count Down Your Pregnancy Day by Day by Dr Maggie Blott is packed full of advice from a team of experts to help guide you through your pregnancy from conception to birth. See more details here at Amazon.
Looking for more pregnancy diet info? Check out our articles below, or swap tips with other mums-to-be in our forum.
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